Washington Courts: Press Release Detail

National Adoption Day 2014: Courts and communities celebrating this week!

November 14, 2014

 

By the time Macey Tenison was 7 years old, she and her younger sister were living in foster care and the courts had legally terminated their parents’ rights to raise them. They would not be going back. Macey, now 12, describes how it felt to not have a permanent family: “It felt like being left out. It wasn’t fair. I felt left out.”
 
She and her sister were among the lucky ones, however. In 2009 they were both adopted by Shaelynn and Sean Tenison during Cowlitz County’s National Adoption Day celebration. Joining a new family “felt weird at first, but then I thought, ‘I could get used to this,’” Macey said. “And now I feel loved and protected.”
 
Washington courts will observe the state’s 10th annual National Adoption Day celebration next week with events being held Nov. 19 – 22 in courts and community halls around the state. The public and media are invited and welcome to attend these celebrations, to hear from families, adoption workers and judicial officers.
 
The statewide National Adoption Day recognition has grown from an original six counties celebrating in 2005 to now 24 counties hosting or joining in events to honor adoption and the crucial difference it makes in the lives of children.
 
Celebrating counties this year include:
 
Asotin/Garfield/Whitman          Cowlitz                                King                                      Skagit
Benton/Franklin                         Grant                                  Kitsap                                   Snohomish
Chelan/Douglas                        Grays Harbor                      Lewis                                   Spokane
Clallam                                      Island                                  Mason                                  Thurston
Clark                                         Jefferson                             Pierce                                   Yakima
 
To find a celebration near you — a statewide list of event days, times and locations — visit http://www.courts.wa.gov/newsinfo/adoptionDay/?fa=adoptionDay.home .
 
 
Since Washington courts first began celebrating National Adoption Day in 2005, 15,418 foster children in Washington have been adopted into new families, with 1,478 of those children being adopted during public NAD celebrations in the courts. More than 130 foster children and orphans will add that number next week, joining their new families during statewide events.
 
However, also during the past nine years, 1,003 Washington legally-free foster children have aged out of foster care without ever finding permanent families.
 
“The lack of a stable, nurturing home has enormous impacts on the life of child. It’s something courts see far too often,” said King County Superior Court Judge Dean Lum, chair of the Washington State National Adoption Day Steering Committee, who is himself adopted. “But the courts are also privileged to take part when a family opens its heart to a child and gives him or her a new home and a new place to belong. That’s the magic of adoption and that’s why we celebrate. To spread the word.”
 
Additional foster child/foster adoption facts over the past nine years include:
  • RACE/ETHNICITY — Of the 8,647 children in foster care on July 31, 2014 in Washington, 4,528 were white; 1,291 were African American; 1,201 were Native American; 1,245 were Hispanic; 275 were Asian and 107 were of unknown racial/ethnic heritage.
  • AGES — Of that same total of children in foster care on July 31, 2,515 were age 2 or younger; 2,171 were ages 3 to 6; 1,558 were ages 7 to 10; 1,259 were ages 11 to 14; and 1,144 were ages 15 to 17.
  • DECREASING WAIT TIMES — For those foster children who go on to adoption, the wait time is decreasing. The median number of months from termination of parental rights to adoption was 9 months in 2009, and has steadily decreased to 5.7 months in 2013. Wait times are shorter for younger foster children, however.
  • ADOPTED BY RELATIVES — The percentage of legally-free foster children adopted by a family member has been increasing steadily. In 2005, 29 percent of foster children were adopted by a non-relative, while in 2013, 42 percent of foster children were adopted by a relative.
 
The goal of National Adoption Day is to raise awareness of the many hundreds of foster children in Washington state who are waiting to be adopted into new families. Currently, more than 8,600 Washington children live in foster care and more than 1,700 are legally free — meaning their biological parents’ rights have been terminated by the courts — and ready to join new families.
 
National Adoption Day was founded by a handful of courts, child welfare agencies and businesses in 2000 to raise awareness of the thousands of foster children awaiting adoption. Washington’s statewide celebration was launched in 2005 by the state Supreme Court Commission on Children in Foster Care and is co-sponsored by the Department of Social and Health Services Children’s Administration, the Administrative Office of the Courts, the Superior Court Judges’ Association, and by WARM 106.9’s Teddy Bear Patrol program.
 
 
CONTACT: King County Superior Court Judge Dean Lum, chair, Washington State National Adoption Day Steering Committee, (206) 296-9295, dean.lum@kingcounty.gov ; Lorrie Thompson, Communications Officer, Administrative Office of the Courts, (360) 705-5347, Lorrie.Thompson@courts.wa.gov.  

Washington Courts Media Contacts:

Wendy K. Ferrell
Judicial Communications Manager
360.705.5331
e-mail Wendy.Ferrell@courts.wa.gov 		Lorrie Thompson
Communications Officer
360.705.5347
Lorrie.Thompson@courts.wa.gov
 

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